Claire's Hope: A Contemporary Christian Romance (Love's Enduring Promise Book 3)

by T. K. Chapin

  “Yep. To get to Floyd’s, just hang a right out of the driveway and then when you get to Elk Chattaroy Road, just go until you come to Floyd’s, you’ll see a milk house and Joshua’s truck out front in the driveway,” Dale replied.

  “Where’d he get that truck? I see the truck sometimes and then other times I see a car.”

  “He drives his Dad’s truck alot.”

  Leaving my bagel behind, I left the kitchen and went out to the truck. The rain was quickly coming down now and I worried what I was getting myself into with the boys over at Floyd’s place. On the drive over, the windshield wipers weren’t able to keep up with the pace of the rain that was coming down. Leaning over the steering wheel, I squinted to see better, but it wasn’t very effective. Every few moments my heart would jump in fear as I thought about my parent’s fated night not so long ago. I hated how much fear was boiling up inside of me on that drive. Was this going to be my new normal when I drove?

  Arriving at Floyd’s, I pulled into the driveway. The rain was still coming down just as furious; it was so loud that it was pelting against the top of Dale’s truck’s roof. I could faintly see the boys just beyond the side of the house, back near the milk house. Between a big row of trees and the milk house was a ravine that ran alongside the building, just smaller than the width of a truck. Judging by the tire marks on both sides of the ravine, I figured they must use that path to quickly get from the back of the milk house where the pasture was up to the front side of the farm. Coming up to the ravine, I could see the truck stuck sideways.

  I got out of the truck and used my jacket to protect my head as I ran over to see what I could do to help. “Some mess you boys got yourself into!” I shouted over the rain.

  “Yeah,” Joshua laughed from down in the mud. If it wasn’t for his laugh, I wouldn’t have been able to tell him apart from Nick, they were both covered in mud from head to toe. “Get in the driver side and push on the gas when we yell, then we will shove.”

  “Why can’t you just pull it out through the trees? Like tow it with another truck?” I asked.

  Nick laughed and smacked Joshua on the shoulder. “Why didn’t we think of that?” He said with a sarcastic tone.

  Joshua shook his head, “We can’t.” His gaze fixated up to the tree line, “See that barbed wire fence? That runs out about fifty or so yards. We’d need to dismantle the fence on two sides.”

  Taking a closer look, I could see the barbed wire barely. My vision had to have been too blurred by the downfall to notice it prior. “Okay, I’ll get in the truck.” Coming around the front of the pick-up truck that was stuck, I shook my head.

  It was a good six feet down to the base of the ravine, and I was a bit scared to jump. But I swallowed my fear and jumped in anyways. Moving slowly through the mud, I climbed up into the cab of the truck and got into the seat.

  “You ready?” Nick shouted from the back of the pick-up. My door was open and the rain was coming down harder than ever. I shoved my thumb up out the door to give them the signal. I turned the key over and waited for them to holler. A push came from the back followed by a “Go!” from Nick and Joshua.

  I put the truck into drive and floored the gas pedal. The truck’s wheels began to spin and then caught on the bank, grabbing traction it began moving up. Then suddenly it went backwards and back into the ravine. Screams came from the back of the truck as it slid backwards. My heart felt as it stopped as fear overtook me. What happened? Please God, don’t let something be wrong… I can’t handle it. Leaping from the cab of the truck, I trudged through the mud with intensity as I came to the back to see what had happened.

  Nobody was there. What the heck? I looked around and then suddenly Nick tackled me from behind, face planting me in the mud. “Ahhh!” I shrieked as I came out of the mud, wiping my face. “You’re a jerk!”

  A soft ball of mud suddenly hit from behind me. Turning, I saw it was Joshua standing upon the bank of the ravine. He was laughing. Making my way through the mud, I got to the edge and grabbed his ankle. He tried to pull away but the rain had made the ledge rather slippery and caused him to come falling down in. He got lucky and fell butt first, so I pushed down on his head, dunking him under the surface of the mud. When I released my hands, he didn’t resurface.

  “Joshua?” I asked, pushing mud out of the way to see if I could find him. Finding an arm, I pulled him up out of the mud and started tapping his cheeks trying to get him alert. “Joshua!” I shouted. Turning back to Nick I said, “He’s not respond-”

  Joshua leaped up and dunked me under the mud. Wiggling free, I came back up and tackled him, shoving him back under the mud again.

  “What’s going on here?” an older man asked from the bank of the ravine. He had a straw hat on and a pair of dirty overalls on.

  “Sorry Floyd,” Joshua replied, standing up straight and shooting a respectful wave.

  “You were supposed to get my truck out of here, not play in the mud…” Floyd said.

  “I know… but it’s stuck pretty good,” Joshua replied.

  “Okay,” Floyd replied. “You and your girlfriend can come inside and get cleaned up.” Floyd turned and began walking away.

  “We’re not together,” I said, trying to let Floyd know the truth before he was out of earshot.

  He stopped and looked back for a moment and smiled, but then continued on towards the house.

  Looking over at Joshua and then over to Nick, we all smiled and shook our heads as we trudged through the mud and over to the bank of the ravine. We all went into the house and talked to Floyd a little bit after cleaning up. He gave the boys’ a fresh pair of clothes from his sons’ room. And Margret fetched me a colorful floral dress from when she was younger. When I was done in the bathroom, she stopped me in the hallway.

  “How you doing sweetie?” she asked, touching my arm.

  Smiling, I replied, “I’m doing better. Thank you.”

  “Are you going to Church?”

  “No, I’m just going to head back to Dale and Jennie’s.”

  “Okay,” she replied with a half-smile. “We’d love to have you sometime at the church.”

  I nodded. “Maybe someday, thanks again for the dress,” I replied, walking back out to the kitchen to join Floyd and the boys.

  After thanking us for our time and effort with the endeavor, Floyd told us his sons would be home from their retreat up to Colville in a few days and the eldest son had a buddy that could get the truck out with a tow truck and some equipment. Heading outside to leave, Joshua and Nick got back into Joshua’s truck. As I watched them pull out in front of me to leave Floyd’s, I saw Joshua smile as our eyes met. I smiled back at him and thought about how much fun that was and how ridiculous I looked in my floral print dress.

  CHAPTER 14

  While I was only planning on staying a couple days with Dale and Jennie, that soon turned into a few weeks after I had a long talk with Dale. We came to an understanding that I’d stay at the house and respect the house rules, but I wouldn’t be required to go to church. I didn’t have a curfew, but they didn’t want me out late every night and I was fine with that rule since I didn’t do much outside of work ever since Nicole and I had the falling out.

  I held off on cashing the check after speaking with Todd, he insisted he didn’t need any of the money. I was fine at Dale and Jennie’s for the time being, and I didn’t feel like cashing the check, I figured I could use it for something important down the line, like when I decided to move out. I didn’t really need a car right away either. Dale was nice enough to allow me to use his truck to get back and forth to work after he had finally fixed the suburban for him and Jennie to use.

  Through the weeks I was there, whenever I wasn’t working, I watched as my aunt and uncle conducted their family life. I saw a family who prayed together, and not only that, they spoke at the dinner table. I loved my family dearly, but we had never sat around the dinner table at night discussing how the days of school went for us kids
or how work was for my father. We’d mostly just dish up our food and go back to our own little worlds in each corner of the house. I had never thought anything of it at the time; I just thought that was normal. That was until I watched how my uncle and aunt would individually ask and discuss with each of their children how their day had gone.

  “A kid picked on me today…” Isaac said, staring at his vegetables on his plate. He looked embarrassed, but he obviously felt inclined to get something off his chest. He wasn’t but eight years of age, but he was quite upset about whatever had transpired earlier in the day at school.

  “What happened?” Dale asked, setting his fork down and folding his hands. He looked genuinely concerned over the matter.

  “They said I walk funny.” Isaac had a Leg Length Discrepancy, a medical condition that he was born with and had always been required to wear a lift in his shorter leg to help compensate the height difference between the two legs.

  “Did you forget to wear the lift?” Dale asked, changing his gaze from Isaac over to Jennie.

  “We couldn’t find his pair of shoes that had them in it… and the children were running late. We should really have more than one set of lifts for him. That’s the second time this week he’s had to wear his old pair of shoes without a lift.” Jennie shook her head and let out a sigh as she looked over to Isaac. “Don’t you worry about those bullies, they are just jealous!”

  “Jealous of my short leg?” Isaac retorted.

  “Hey now,” Dale said to Isaac. Directing his attention to Jennie, he continued, “If our son has lost his pair of shoes twice in only a week, I suspect you are right and we need another lift… but he might want to try to keep better track of his shoes.” Looking back to Isaac, he continued, “Don’t let your short leg rule you, son. You have to remember that God gave you that short leg. And who knows why, but that’s part of who you are. You need to embrace that.”

  “Yes, Father…” Isaac replied. “I just want to be normal…”

  “Normal isn’t fun… plus who’s normal anyways?” Dale asked.

  “Joe, Skyler, Gabe…” Isaac replied.

  “They are popular,” Lizzy added.

  “Don’t aspire to be normal or popular, aspire to be great. God is going to help you Isaac, you just need to let him. Just pray about it when you feel sad and God will help comfort you. And you can always come to your mother and I, you know that. God cares about what’s in your heart son.”

  These conversations, while I had no idea how much the children liked them, made me realize how really involved these two parents were in the lives of their children, they honestly and truly cared. Later that evening, when I heard them upstairs putting the children to bed, they specifically mentioned Isaac’s sadness over being made fun of at school. That sensitivity, care and attention to detail was astonishing to me. I only hoped for the same in my own life sometime down the line.

  After all the children were in bed and Jennie and Dale had retired to their room for the evening, I got a text from Nicole. I was surprised to hear from her, I figured I’d never see or hear from her again after the fight we had.

  Party, Derek’s place. Come hang. Miss u.

  It was only ten o’clock and I had tomorrow off because of a dentist appointment in the afternoon, so I figured it couldn’t hurt. Going out and chilling sounded good after working so much for the last few weeks. Sure, she was a bit of a snot to me, but I didn’t care, I missed her. Glancing towards the hallway where Dale and Jennie were asleep, I debated on asking them to take the truck into town to go hang with Nicole. I know I had been using it to get into town for work, but I had no idea if going out would be okay.

  Going into the kitchen, I saw the keys to the truck hanging on the keychain hook near the door. As I walked up to it, Jennie startled me from behind.

  “What are you doing?” She asked, walking into the kitchen in her bathrobe. She flipped on the light and I turned around to see her surprised expression. “Were you going to leave in the truck?”

  “No… well… I figured…”

  Jennie continued to the sink and grabbed a cup that sat nearby on the counter. “You don’t need to steal our vehicles. You can take the work truck. We already let you use it for work.” She went over to the fridge and pushed the cup into the water dispenser and then took a drink. “Good night… And try to be careful, please.”

  “I will,” I replied. “Thanks.” Jennie didn’t respond, but I didn’t know if it was because I said it too softly or if it was because she was upset with me. It didn’t matter though; I got permission to take the truck. Hurrying my steps out of the house and out to the truck, I left for Spokane.

  Getting to Derek’s house, it felt like I had returned to my people. There were a few out in the front lawn drinking and a couple people smoking up by the front porch. Music was blaring from the house and I could see through the windows into the living room where a large gathering of people were dancing.

  I went inside and found Nicole on the couch with a few guys beside her. She stood up immediately and hugged me as she smiled.

  “I’m sooooo sorry about all that drama the other day.” She was drunk already, I could tell.

  “It was like a month ago… But yeah… Is Joshua here?”

  “No, he’s not on designated duty tonight I guess… why? Are you like into him?”

  “No… we’re just friends… I was just wondering.” Honestly though, I thought about him on the drive over and was kind of hoping he might be at the party. It was okay he wasn’t there though. I could do whatever I wanted without feeling his little judgy eyes on me.

  “Okay… whatever. And just FYI, I think we just work better as friends… not that whole living together thing, ya know? And it’s been weird at work not talking. I don’t like it.” She said, putting an arm around me and leading me deeper into the party. I nodded as we went into the kitchen and met up with Blake.

  “Yo,” He said, sliding his hand onto Nicole’s lower back. “You want some more of that chronic?”

  Smiling at him, Nicole nodded quickly. “That stuff is schwweeeet!” Blake took a couple glances around the party before pulling out his stash of his pocket. He had a sandwich bag full of it. “Let’s have a bowl,” Nicole said.

  “Sounds good!” I replied with a sigh of relief. I hadn’t been high in a while and I was ready to relax.

  That night was exactly what I wanted it to be. Relaxing, calm and peaceful. No meth, no drama and the best part? Being with my friends and enjoying their company. I knew Dale and Jennie wouldn’t approve of anything I was doing at the moment, but it didn’t matter to me. I didn’t need their approval to live my life. I knew what was best for me, and what I needed, I thought, was a good time.

  The after party was at the restaurant Denny’s over off Division Street. The crowd was large, but not as big as the party. There was about twelve of us that all squished into tables near each other at about three o’clock that morning. More than half of us were baked and a good majority were intoxicated also. I was buzzing pretty good from Blake’s stash he shared with Nicole and I.

  When the waitress came to our table, Blake called her beautiful and everybody erupted in laughter since she was about seventy years old. “Are you going to order or should I come back?” She asked, tapping her pen against her order pad.

  “Sorry,” Blake said. He picked up the menu all serious-like and said, “Could I get a burger?”

  “Sure, what kind?”

  “What kinds do you have?”

  Sighing, the waitress leaned over and pointed out the burgers.

  “I’ll take the… Western Melt.”

  “Great.” She jotted something down on her pad.

  The waitress went around the tables and collected everyone’s order. When the food had arrived at the table, I couldn’t help but dig in. I felt like a ravenous wolf that hadn’t eaten in days, I consumed my heaping pile of nachos rather quickly. It looked like Nicole wasn’t able to finish her fries or her turkey
club. And the hunger was gnawing inside of me still.

  “Are you done with that?” I asked, interrupting her conversation with one of the other people at the table. She looked over at me with a raised eyebrow. “What? I’m stoned, I’m hungry!” I replied with a laugh.

  “Go for it,” she said, shoeing the plate my direction. Every bite was more delicious than the previous one.

  “Did you want my leftovers?” Blake asked, showing me his plate of fries.

  “Sure,” I said, grabbing the plate. Nicole’s questioning gaze stayed on me.

  “Dang girl! You are eating so much!” she said. “Are you feeling okay?”

  “I’m fine… Don’t talk about my weight again…”

  Nicole shrugged. “Something is going on with you… I think you should see a doctor. My sister has this strange genetic disorder thing that makes her want to eat a whole lot of food… Maybe it’s something weird like that.”

  “I don’t know… I feel fine. I’m not going to worry about it.”

  “Fine, whatever. Suit yourself.” Nicole coldly turned her shoulder at me.

  “Don’t be like that!” I said, touching her shoulder.

  “Like what? I’m worried about you. I’ve known you for a very long time and I’ve never seen you act the way you have about food… it’s just, strange.”

  Dwelling on it for a moment longer, I realized Nicole was right. I’ve been rather thin most of my life and I’ve never had much of an appetite until recently. “I wonder if it’s like a comfort food thing… Like it’s helping me with my parents and stuff.”

  “It could be,” Nicole replied. “Just don’t know unless you see someone about it…”

  “True, I’ll go see someone. Thanks for looking out for me.”

  CHAPTER 15

  The first thing I did the next morning was phone doctor Hall’s office. After explaining the over indulgence the nurse on the other end told me to come and get seen. Luckily, they were able to fit me in the same day at one o’clock. They had a cancellation earlier in the morning. My dentist appointment was at the same time though, so I had to call and rescheduled that for later in the month.